The Julius B. Richmond Fellowships at the Center on the Developing Child support dissertation research for Harvard University doctoral students. Established in 2006, the Center on the Developing Child is dedicated to creating a new generation of leaders who are prepared to think differently, work differently, and drive innovation in research, policy, and practice to improve the well-being of vulnerable children. The Fellowship is named for Julius B. Richmond who, until his death in 2008, was the John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Policy Emeritus in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. The Richmond Fellowships were established in 2006 by an initial grant from the Foundation for Child Development in honor of Dr. Richmond’s birthday, and have since been supported by the Center as an ongoing testament to honor Dr. Richmond’s enduring legacy.

2013-2014 Fellows

The following four students were recipients of Richmond Fellowships for the 2013-2014 academic year:

Soojin Oh is a doctoral candidate in the Human Development and Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research project explores how social, cultural, and organizational contexts influence early language development among children of low-income families. She hopes to inform policy that addresses social disparities and inequalities of educational opportunity for society’s most vulnerable children. Oh is a former editor of the Harvard Educational Review. She received a B.A. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and an Ed.M. in education policy and management from Harvard. Oh’s mentor is Hiro Yoshikawa, who is the Courtney Sale Ross University Professor of Globalization and Education and the Co-Director of the Institute for Globalization and Education at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.

Alonso Sánchez is a doctoral student in the Quantitative Policy Analysis in Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Sánchez’s research focuses on low-income mothers who receive nutritional and health support during their child’s prenatal period and first year of life from a Mexican anti-poverty program called Oportunidades. His research analyzes whether this intervention has long-term effects on the child’s education and cognitive achievement. Sánchez’s background includes experience as a consultant in education and human development projects at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. He received a B.S. in mathematics and art history from Texas Christian University and a master’s of public affairs as well as a master’s of Latin American studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Sánchez’s mentor is Richard Murnane, an economist who is the Thompson Professor of Education and Society at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Benjamin Sosnaud is a doctoral candidate studying sociology in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. His research explores the association between maternal socioeconomic position and education and infant mortality in the United States. Sosnaud is interested in documenting the variation in this association across 50 states and examining social policies that could help explain the cross-state differences in infant health disparities. By highlighting policies with the potential to either widen or narrow disparities in infant mortality risk, he hopes to draw attention to the broader consequences of policy decisions and inform future policy debates. Sosnaud received a B.A. in sociology and political science from Duke, and an M.A. in sociology from Harvard. Sosnaud’s mentor is Jason Beckfield, a professor of sociology at Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Ashley Winning is a doctoral student in social and behavioral sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, with a study concentration in social and psychiatric epidemiology. Her research assesses whether early psychological distress in children influences risk for heart and metabolic problems in adulthood, even when psychological distress is no longer an issue in adulthood. She is interested in understanding effects of the social environment on children and their health over the life course. Winning has held research roles in child protection, violence prevention, and women’s health. Winning received a B.A. in psychology, with a minor in drama, from Queens University, Ontario, Canada, and has a master of public health in behavioral sciences and health education from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. Winning’s mentor is Center-affiliated faculty member Laura Kubzansky, a professor of social and behavioral sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

2012-2013 Richmond Fellows

During the 2012-2013 academic year, the Center funded the research of three Harvard students:

Anjali Adukia was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a sixth-year doctoral student studying the economics of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in the Quantitative Policy Analysis in Education program. Her primary interests concern improving access to education in developing countries, particularly at the intersection of education and health. Her current work examines the impact of addressing basic needs, such as sanitation on education and health outcomes in rural schools in India.

Madeleine deBlois was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a fourth-year doctoral student in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her research interests focus on the social determinants of child and adolescent health and development. Madeleine is interested in the diverse and interactive ways that communities, neighborhoods, families, schools, and out-of-school-time programs contribute to child well-being. Her doctoral research examines children’s self-regulation from a social-epidemiological perspective.

Claire Houston was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a third-year doctoral student (S.J.D. candidate) at Harvard Law School. Her research focuses on feminist legal reform projects in the area of family law. She is especially interested in the impact such projects have on children's interests. Claire is a qualified lawyer in Ontario, Canada, and represented children in family law disputes prior to pursuing graduate studies.

2011-2012 Richmond Fellows

During the 2011-2012 academic year, the Center funded the research of three Harvard students:

Todd Grindal was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a 5th year doctoral student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he studies the impact of public policies on young children and children with disabilities. His dissertation research is focused on the unionization of home child care providers and its impact on early education policy and practice. Prior to beginning his doctoral studies, he worked for six years as a teacher and school administrator at the preschool and elementary levels. Photo by Severin Photography

Read Todd's article, Unequal access: Hidden barriers to achieving both quality and profit in early care and education, recently published in American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Access the full article on AEI's Web site >>

Sarah Hope Lincoln was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a 4th year clinical psychology doctoral student in the Department of Psychology at the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She is interested in developmental psychopathology, specifically the neurobiological mechanisms underlying severe mental illness in children and adolescents. Her research is focused on elucidating the neural mechanisms underlying social cognitive deficits that may relate to impairment in social functioning in children, adolescents, and young adults at risk for schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Photo by Severin Photography

Andrew Thorne-Lyman was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a 4th year doctoral student in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is interested in the potential of nutritional interventions during pregnancy and early childhood to improve neonatal and infant health and developmental outcomes. His doctoral research explores the effects of vitamin D and calcium on maternal and child health outcomes, including preterm delivery, preeclampsia, and infant growth and mortality in Tanzania and Denmark.

Read Andrew's article, Improving Child Survival Through Vitamin A Supplementation, recently published in the British Medical Journal. Download PDF >>

2010-2011 Richmond Fellows

Erin C. Dunn was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a fifth-year doctoral student in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her research is focused on identifying risk and protective factors linked to the onset of mental health problems in children and adolescents. In this work, she adopts an ecological or multi-level perspective, examining the role of both individual and contextual determinants, including genetic factors and the influence of neighborhood and school environments. One of her three dissertation papers is focused on identifying gene-environment interactions with respect to depression in youth.

Sky Marietta was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as an advanced doctoral student in Human Development and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. A former elementary school teacher, Marietta is focusing her research on understanding variation in language and literacy development in low-income children. During her fellowship year, she conducted a mixed-methods study that compares children in rural Appalachia with economically matched peers in New England.

Matthew Ranson was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a fifth-year doctoral student in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He is interested in a range of issues related to environmental and behavioral economics, particularly non-market valuation and risk assessment. During his fellowship year, his work examined the effects of prenatal pollution exposure on children's cognitive ability.

2009-2010 Richmond Fellows

In the 2009-10 year, the Center saw a three-fold increase in applications, including the first submissions from students at the Graduate School of Design and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

M. Clara Barata was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a fifth-year doctoral student in Human Development and Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research is on the impact of early childhood education on development, particularly in the domain of executive function. Her work involves serving on the evaluation team of an integrated health and education preschool intervention program in Chile.

Dustin Duncan was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a third-year doctoral student at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health. Duncan’s dissertation research seeks to advance scientific knowledge on neighborhood environmental determinants of obesity risk among children and adolescents.

Carmel Salhi was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a fourth-year doctoral student in Global Health and Population at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Salhi’s general research area of interest is on understanding the role of displacement on the mental health of children and youth using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods.

Sabrina Selk was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a fourth-year doctoral student in the Department of Society, Human Development and Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her research as a Richmond Fellow will focus on exploring the association between childhood abuse and adverse adulthood reproductive outcomes.

Amie Shei was awarded the Richmond Fellowship a fourth-year doctoral student in the Health Policy program at Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Her research examines the health impacts of Brazil’s Bolsa Família program, a program aimed at reducing poverty, encouraging healthy child development, and building human capital.

2008-09 Richmond Fellows

David Deming was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a fourth-year doctoral student in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. His research used the trajectory of student achievement over the life cycle to test hypotheses about the role of current knowledge in generating future achievement.Deborah Stone was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a fifth-year doctoral student in the department of Society, Human Development and Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Stone’s general research area of interest was on understanding the role of child maltreatment on life course health/mental health trajectories.

Malavika Subramanyam was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a sixth-year doctoral student in the Department of Society, Human Development and Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Subramanyam majored in Social Epidemiology and conducted research on the influence of socioeconomic context in multiple domains and levels on the nutritional status of children under the age of five in India.Adrienne Tierney was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a fourth-year doctoral student in the Human Development and Education program at Harvard Graduate School of Education. She conducted independent research on the neurocognitive development of children with autism as well as on developing sensitive neural assays that aid in early identification of autism in infants at risk for the disorder.

2007-08 Richmond Fellows

Allison Appleton was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a third-year student at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the Department of Sociology, Human Development and Health. The Richmond Fellowship supported Appleton’s independent research on how early childhood social and emotional factors may influence later adult health.Daniel Berry was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a third-year doctoral student in the Department of Human Development and Psychology at the Graduate School of Education. Berry’s independent research used molecular genetics to assess gene-environment processes in children’s social and cognitive school-readiness.

Ivelina Borisova was awarded the Richmond Fellowship in the fourth year of her doctoral study at the Graduate School of Education in the department of Human Development and Psychology. The Richmond Fellowship funded her in-depth quantitative analyses of potential modifiable protective processes in the psycho-social adjustment of former child soldiers in Sierra Leone.